Top Five: George W. Bush's YouTube Comedy Threat Levels

With under a week to go until the inauguration of Barack Obama, virtually no-one seems to be mourning the exit of George W. Bush - particularly not the residents of New Orleans, following Monday's bone-headed comments by 43 regarding his administration's response to Hurricane Katrina. (Which we feel compelled to preface before the following blog: No laughing matter, folks.)

That said, a key exception to this rule would be the comedy community - in particular the writers of late-night television, who inevitably get a bit misty for an outgoing president's value as comedy material, and Dubya was certainly a cornucopia for them during his tenure. This time, though, it may not merely be those who make a living making us laugh who are losing their golden goose, but the innumerable Toms, Dicks and Harrys who in today's global pop-culture canon can express their god-given right to take a swipe at the commander in chief through the magic of the Internet. Bush, for better or worse (and rarely for worse), was the first president of the YouTube generation, and as such, plenty of memorable giggles came our way at his expense from ordinary folks with a little (and sometimes, a lot) of time on their hands.

Thus, we salute our favorite joker-vigilantes with a collection of Dubya-related YouTube classics - not nearly all of them, but a handful designed to demonstrate the full breadth of yuks in the past eight years, laid out for your perusal in a handy fashion by range of the skill and creativity involved. Call it our own version of the Homeland Security threat levels... Comedy Edition!

Comedy Threat Level: GreenThe "One-Finger Victory Salute"Granted, not a whole lot of time and energy on the part of the perpetrators here, other than the usual time (depending on your connection speed) it takes to upload a video on YouTube. The clip, however, speaks for itself: Bush while he was still governor of Texas, on local television, clearly unaware (or at least not bothered) that the cameras were still rolling to catch his naughty finger-gesture in all its glory. What's funny here isn't so much the gesture itself as the fact that it can now be perpetuated, over and over, for the whole world to "enjoy" as often as they like.